Ruthin online project to promote town

Ruthin will move further into the digital tourism age with next step of the Wikipedia project with the exciting news that residents of the town are invited to particpate in promoting the town world wide . With the project nearing completion the next step is to hold a free digital scanning day which is open to residents of the town and visitors.

The plan is to scan as many as possible images of Ruthin which will be stored for posterity with some appearing on Wikipedia pages , some in Wikimedia

Ruthin will be an open house to:-
Anyone who wants to take photographs (or already has photos) of the town or surrounding villages and have them scanned and made available world wide
Anyone who has photographs of anything over 70 years old relating to the town and surrounding villages
Anyone who has historical deeds of their property
Anyone who can translate a few pages from English into another language. It is hoped to have information about Ruthin available in many laguages, this will enabke anyone to see information about Ruthin and read about it in their own langauae. Of particular interest are French, German. Spanish Polish and any of the Asian languages.

The project is based on the very successful Monmouth project which when it became Wales's first Wikipedia town saw a marked increase in visitors. The Monmouth Wikipedia site now attracts 400,00 hits per year and is available in 30 languages

Project Manager Ron Bell told the Clwyd Connection "this open scanning day will give everyone in the town a chance to contribute to the project. The overall project will help to attract visitor to the town, Ruthin is beginning to break into the digital tourism market and reach a new audience.

He added: " The way people book their holidays is changing with on line searches becoming more popular. Now people will Google pages, use Trip Advisor and Website. Wikipedia will help project Ruthin on the World Wide Web".

Wikipedia is the largest repository of content in the world with 470m unique visitors monthly, it has a higher star rating than Google, Facebook, YouTube and Yahoo!

The more content on Wikipedia about Ruthin the greater the exposure for the town. Wikipedia is supported by Visit Wales, Wikimedia UK. and Ordnance Survey
Anyone interested in attending the Wikipedia scanning day should attend Awelon Community Centre, in School Road between 10-4pm on the July 12, for further details email:- ronbell46@tiscali.co.uk For those people who wil be joining the fun on Route 76 appointents can be made from 9 am before doors open